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Pawel Pawlikowski's film "Ida" may have won this year's Oscar for best foreign language film; however, it is far from universally well-received in Poland. While some fear it will resurrect anti-Polish stereotypes, others accuse it of anti-Semitism, writes Filip Mazurczak. [ more ]

Eurozine Review

In "Esprit", a Catholic philosopher defends the right to blaspheme after the Charlie Hebdo attack; "Dérive" visits the unique urban lab that is Germany's post-industrial Ruhr region; "Krytyka" notes the ascendancy of the Russian language in post-Maidan Ukraine; "Frakcija" eavesdrops ArtLeaks' discussion of art and money; "Multitudes" says the art market's rigged; "Letras Libres" celebrates the art of biography; "Mittelweg 36" immerses itself in the world of work; and "Razpotja" says sexualized society leaves much to be desired.

Lettera internazionale (Italy) dedicates an issue to "L'Europa fuori d'Europa", the "other" Europe outside the borders of the EU. This turns out to be – above all – the Balkans.

"Also myths can change, they can be forgotten or rebuilt depending on the times we live in and on the aspirations we have," writes Fatos Lubonja, Albanian dissident and editor of the journal Përpjekja. Lubonja thereby makes his position clear in the debate on the so-called "demythification" of national hero Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, which started with the publication of the book Skanderbeg: Der neue Alexander auf dem Balkan (Skanderbeg: The new Alexander in the Balkans) by historian Oliver Schmitt. Well-known Albanian writer Ismail Kadare compared the attempt of demythification to an "attack on the concept of liberty." Fact is, writes Lubonja, that the role of Albanian national heroes, that took on "unreal dimensions" during the totalitarian regime, need to be reconsidered and "deconstructed in the name of the spirit of the present age". He concludes: "Today we have the problem of making Albanian citizens become part of the 21st century. They have to get rid of the most dangerous enemy, that is ignorance."

Reconciliation:Slavenka Drakulic also flips the history book open, thereby unveiling the open questions that still preoccupy former Yugoslavian states: "Why fight for independence? Why wars? Was it a civil war? Was there only one aggressor? How many victims and on which side? Answers to these questions are hard to obtain, finding acceptance for them in any society even harder."

According to Drakulic, the precondition for any reconciliation process is justice: "Indeed justice is the very fundament upon which reconciliation rests. But there is no justice without truth. Without a legal system for trying one's own war criminals – and thereby uncovering facts about crimes committed in recent wars – everything else, every other attempt is bound to fail. This is not a simple task."

Thinking Europe without thinking:Tanja Petrovic, Slovenian linguist and anthropologist, still sees the western Balkans as a region "outside Europe" and analyses the use of mechanisms of supervision and neo-colonial discourse.

Contested Duma elections in December 2011 returned Vladimir Putin to the Russian presidency and prompted a surge in street protests. In the interim, the movement lost its momentum. New Eastern Europe (Poland) asks: can Russia really change?

Policy expert Tatiana Stanovaya surveys the opposition, both systemic and non-systemic. The latter now consists of three main groups: one led by the professional milieu that emerged in the 1990s under Yeltsin; the Coordination Council of the Opposition, which includes leaders of recent protests; and finally an "elite opposition", in which former vice prime minister and former minister of finance Alexei Kudrin, and the billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, are the main players.

Change? Yes! No! Despite the opposition's fragmented nature, Garry Kasparov (in interview) is adamant that half a million people on the streets of Moscow can change the regime and "open a new chapter in Russian history". Scholar of international relations Jakub Korejba counters: "Blaming Russia for a lack of democracy is like complaining about not being able to buy alcohol in Saudi Arabia." Moreover, "trying to boost democracy would mean going against [...] elements of the Russian national identity". Korejba warns that "such a manifestation of civilizational chauvinism may only push Russians away from the West and compromize western values".

Chinese-Belarusian relations: In search of a metaphor capable of enlightening readers as to the inexplicable "recent boom in Belarus-China relations", journalist Katerina Barushka turns to potatoes and fortune cookies: "Just as a potato needs sun and rain, Lukashenka needs credits and investments, preferably fast, easy and on an unconditional basis." As for the fortune cookie: "It is distinct and remains true to its homeland, just like the Chinese officials when doing business in Belarus or elsewhere in the world." Despite which, Belarus hopes that China's engagement with the country will be a threat to Russian interests.

Also: Commentary on the costs of inaction, should the European Union continue to lose sight of its role in the security and stability of eastern Europe. And Anne Applebaum speaks to Hayden Berry, following the publication of her new book Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956.

The new issue of Osteuropa is dedicated to the Napoleonic Wars and, in particular, the events of 1812. In an article entitled "1812 in Russia and Europe", Anna Ananieva and Klaus Gestwasurvey the political repercussions and interpretations of the war.

The events have been the subject of constant revision in a range of media, including music and literature, as well as by historians. This is how the Great Patriotic War (which was what the resistance of the French invasion used to be called before this term was reserved for WWII) came to be invented, when farmers and aristocrats stood together against a common enemy. Ignoring the fact that Russia was a multiethnic state and that less than half of the officers in service had Russo-Slavic family names, the idea of the Russian nation was dreamt up. "The memory of the conflict of 1812-14 is peculiarly well-suited to the invention of the nation. Contemporary re-stagings of the invasion of Russia in a range of media prepared the way for a useful narrative of the 'War of 1812'."

The most influential piece of literature for this patriotic approach was the novel Vojna i mir (War and Peace) by Leo Tolstoy. Until now the only event that overshadowed the resistance against Napoleon's troops was Russian engagement in World War II. But "the more distant WWII becomes, the more the continuity between the wars is emphasized in Russia's official culture of memory – both rhetorically and in the way it is re-staged."

Pussy Riot and 1812: Elisabeth Cheauré reveals further traces of the 1812 war in current Russian politics and culture. The re-enactment of the battle of Borodino in 2012 was the main event of the commemorative year with more than 2000 actors and over half a million spectators. But "why exactly Borodino? Why a battle that only lasted a day, whose course still has not been conclusively reconstructed and whose outcome lay literally in the fog (of war)?"

A question left unanswered but which enhances the randomness of the myth of the Russian nation. Interestingly, Pussy Riot showed that there is no room for humour when it comes to the year 1812. In 1839 a cathedral was built in memory of the victory of 1812. Completed in the 1880s and used for celebrations until Stalin blew the church up, it was turned into a public swimming pool after his death. Between 1995 and 2000 the cathedral was rebuilt and it was this very church, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, that Pussy Riot chose for their 2012 protest performance. Cheauré is convinced that this choice added to the harsh verdict against the punk group: in a newspaper piece by Specnaz Rossii "under the title 'Pussy riot. The Battle of Borodino', one could read of the 'rats' who 'danced upon the bones of the fallen warriors'."

In Krytyka (Ukraine), Mykhaylo Minakov reconsiders the causes and results of the "colour revolutions" in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, contrasting these with counter-revolutionary developments in Russia, Armenia and Tajikistan.

Minakov is rather sceptical about the outcomes of the colour revolutions. They failed, he writes, to address "the injustice of post-Soviet societies" and "offer a fundamentally new solution to the political and socio-economic challenges". They were "an irrational response to a complex socio-political situation", even "a barbarian response". However, they were "tantamount to the barbarism of the regimes", whose "ignominious lie" simply demanded a response. The future struggle for political freedom is inevitable, Minakov concludes. Therefore civil society must learn the lesson of the failed colour revolutions.

Gender politics: Discussing women's political representation in Ukraine, Tamara Martsenyuk notes that there were positive developments in promotion of gender equality in the 1990s and early 2000s, pointing to particular achievements just after the 2004 Orange Revolution. However, since Viktor Yanukovych took office as president in 2010, the situation has deteriorated, writes Martsenyuk. Sexist statements are legion among top-ranking politicians. "If a woman's main functions are reduced to the embodiment of beauty, being an object to look at and a mother, then Ukrainian society is unlikely to ever imagine any other roles for women."

A possible solution to the current situation would be the introduction of gender quota for superior state bodies, suggests Martsenyuk. However, "there have been more than ten attempts to introduce affirmative action into the legal system", but the parliament has not supported any of them. Instead of waiting for another suggestion, political parties should voluntarily introduce gender quota, Martsenyuk says: "Ukrainian women are not inferior to men in terms of professional education, and it is therefore hard to believe that political parties would not be able to find and train the required number of female politicians."

In Schweizer Monat, historian and political scientist Harold Jamesstresses the need for a workable EU model for federalism and democracy and finds it in the Swiss political, economic and social system. He advocates the Swiss model of consociational democracy, according to which:

"all the major parties are represented in the government, and are consequently obliged to hammer out compromises. Sometimes there are regional loyalties, sometimes ideological ones: they all need to be negotiated in the process of making decisions. But the concordance principle does not just work in the abstract – it requires a notion of solidarity that is built through other institutions. In particular, the systematic compromises that are regularly required can only function if many decisions are made in other settings: in parliament, but also on a regional (cantonal) level. The fundamental working principle for concordance is thus a well-established system of subsidiarity, with decisions being left as far as possible to the smallest territorial units: cities and districts as well as nation-states."

Capitalism and welfare: A recent public debate on "welfare in capitalism" turned into a controversial and rather emotional discussion between economist Gerhard Schwarz, German philosopher Hermann Lübbe, the business economics lecturer Timo Meynhardt and professor emeritus for public law Philippe Mastronardi. Schweizer Monat publishes the debate, in which Mastronardi advocates the collective stance:

"Of course, it cannot be that we reduce the concept of welfare to the economic level. Welfare has to do with a quality of life, with living together in society. From culture, through love and all of the qualities of our lives right up until death, welfare is something that every single one of us tries to strive for. The economy is an important, but not the greater part in this equation. And therefore, it does not have to be that we find welfare in capitalism. Rather, one has to ask what role capitalism plays in terms of welfare. [...] That is, how do we make capitalism dependent on welfare?"

"Only deluded idiots could have believed that Slovenes would become anything other than a source of cheap labour (which in due course became too expensive anyway), and a dumping ground for the surplus products of more successful economies. [...] We must therefore ask who has in fact benefited from Slovenian independence. Certainly not the people. Those who certainly did benefit were the few individuals who knew how to exploit privatization for their own ends and, above all of course, those who have screwed us again and placed us in an effectively colonial relationship."

Urban culture: From theatre to architecture, postwar urban culture provides the focus for at least two of this issue's pieces. In an interview with Dialogi's theatre editor, Zarko Petan looks back on a career that spanned much of Europe as well as the former Yugoslavia, where he staged the first Ionesco plays in Slovenia at the end of the 1950s. Meanwhile, the urban planning and architectural history of Yugoslav cities during the period 1945 to 1990 is the subject of the exhibition Unfinished Modernization: Between Utopia and Pragmatism, on tour in cities throughout former Yugoslavia and reviewed by Andrej Smid.

The February issue of Akadeemia (Estonia) celebrates the ninety-fifth anniversary of the Republic of Estonia by republishing Illmar Tonisson's reflections on "the nation as the carrier of a unique culture", which first appeared in 1930. However, the youthful enthusiasm concerning the virtues of "cultural self-realization" in this piece gives way directly to the fears and hopes experienced during the transition to an authoritarian government in Estonia during the latter half of the 1930s, as represented in an article by Indrek Paavle.

Between Europe and other cultural regions: Nonetheless, the theme of cultural self-realization is sustained in Alar Maas' "European identity from the 1860s to the present". The period opens with Estonia's national awakening, which prepared the way for the mingling of both nationalist and social democratic ideologies. At the same time, educational reforms seemed to instrumentalize aspects of Estonian culture perceived to be held in common with Europe, to the disadvantage of "Estonian ethnic culture". Here Maas sees several hints of an affinity between the European Union and the Soviet Union and locates the problem to the basic concept that "humans have an identical world of thought, therefore their ethnic and cultural originality can be accepted only formally".

Also: Erki Tammiksaar continues his investigation into how oil shale, despite its drawbacks as a fuel in comparison to coal and petroleum, guaranteed Estonia energy independence.

Italian media activist Franco Berarditakes the ways in which our lives are speeding up as the point of departure for a theoretical yet programmatic article in Multitudes (France): "Technology and speed are more and more of an influence on social communication, the organization of labour and everyday life. Contemporary individuals perceive the intensification of the life rhythm as the determinant characteristic of post-Fordian society."

Through the acceleration of information flows and the intensification of stimuli, our attention span is reduced, writes Berardi. This leads to a desensitisation to stimuli, ending in a "general pathology of our sensibility". The effect on society's psyche is simply "more information, less sense".

Berardi's scenario is one ruled by "semiocapitalism" (capitalism based on the production and circulation of semiotic goods) and time-killing media power. Responding to this development, media activism has "opened new spaces of freedom". However, its work is far from done, according to Berardi:

"The digital media space, which invades everything, changes the psycho-chemistry of the social brain both with regard to opinion and sensibility. Sensibility is the faculty which makes things intelligible that cannot be put into words, like empathy. The deterioration of the fine layer of sensibility is the source of our contemporary psychopathology and of the disappearance of social solidarity that entails the political weakness of our societies."

Consequently, media activism should "reinvest the aesthetic dimension; first as art, as a new production of the sensible, then as therapy, with the aim of rebalancing the relationship between info-space and aesthetic perception".

Music resistance: Under the title "Musique f(r)ictions", Frédéric Bisson and Pascal Houba introduce "Minority music" as "thinking music", in a section that also includes portraits of Sun Ra, Antony Braxton, and the New York music bar The Stone – and "the ethics of hardcore".

Published 2013-02-27

The Snowden leaks and the ensuing NSA scandal made the whole world debate privacy and data protection. Now the discussion has entered a new phase - and it's all about policy. A focal point on the politics of privacy: claiming a European value. [more]

The fate of migrants attempting to enter Fortress Europe has triggered a new European debate on laws, borders and human rights. A focal point featuring reportage alongside articles on policy and memory. With contributions by Fabrizio Gatti, Seyla Benhabib and Alessandro Leogrande. [more]

In the two decades after the end of the Cold War, intellectual interaction between Russia and Europe has intensified. It has not, however, prompted a common conversation. The focal point "Russia in global dialogue" seeks to fuel debate on democracy, society and the legacy of empire. [more]

Ten years after the Orange Revolution, Ukraine is in the throes of yet another major struggle. Eurozine provides commentary on events as they unfold and further articles from the archive providing background to the situation in today's Ukraine. [more]

At a time when the global pull of democracy has never been stronger, the crisis of democracy has become acute. Eurozine has collected articles that make the problems of democracy so tangible that one starts to wonder if it has a future at all, as well as those that return to the very basis of the principle of democracy. [more]

Brought on by the global economic recession, the eurocrisis has been exacerbated by serious faults built into the monetary union. Contributors discuss whether the EU is not only broke, but also broken -- and if so, whether Europe's leaders are up to the task of fixing it. [more]

In recent years, Hungary has been a constant concern for anyone interested in European politics. We have collected articles published in Eurozine on recent developments in Hungary and broader issues relating to Hungarian politics, history and culture. [more]

The public sphere is not something given; it is made - over and over again. But which actors are involved and what roles do they play? Is there a difference between an intellectual and an expert? And in which media or public space does the debate take place? [more]

Harbour cities develop distinct modes of being that not only reflect different cultural traditions and political and social self-conceptions, but also contain economic potential and communicate how they see themselves as part of the larger structure that is "Europe". [more]

Broadening the question of a common European narrative beyond the East-West divide. How are contested interpretations of historical and recent events activated in the present, uniting and dividing European societies? [more]

Media change is about more than just the "newspaper crisis" and the iPad: property law, privacy, free speech and the functioning of the public sphere are all affected. On a field experiencing profound and constant transformation. [more]

Despite the Internet's growing significance as vehicle of freedom of expression, public service broadcasting and the press will remain for some time the visible face of the watchdog on power. In western Europe, the traditional media need to prove they are still capable of performing this role. [more]

Massimo Sestini's aerial shot of a boat containing at least 500 people attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea, included in the current exhibition in the Eurozine Gallery, has been named one of the top ten photos of 2014 by TIME magazine. [more]

This summer, Time to Talk partner Free Word, London hosted a debate on the role that literature houses play in preserving freedom of expression both in Europe and globally. Should everyone get a place on the podium? Also those representing the political extremes? [more]

On 10 April, De Balie and the ECF jointly organized a public debate in Amsterdam entitled "In the EU we (mis)trust: On the road to the EU elections". Some of the questions raised: Which challenges does Europe face today? Which strategic choices need to be made? [more]

What do young Brits think about state surveillance, privacy and the choices we all make about sharing our personal data online? Is privacy achievable in lives lived so much online and what measures can, and do, we undertake to protect our information? [more]

Depo looks at Turkey's security politics, taking in their origin, consolidation and present development: how much do people trust their institutions and what impact do these levels of trust have upon how confident people in Turkey feel in their everyday lives? [more]

As the culture and institutions of the Gutenberg Galaxy wane, Felix Stalder looks to commons, assemblies, swarms and weak networks as a basis for remaking society in a more inclusive and diverse way. The aim being to expand autonomy and solidarity at the same time. [more]

Earlier civil disobedients hinted at our increasingly global condition. Snowden takes it as a given. But, writes William E. Scheuerman, in lieu of an independent global legal system in which Snowden could defend his legal claims, the Obama administration should treat him with clemency. [more]

Freedom has been the most important motif of accounts of human history since the Enlightenment. Yet, only with the planetary crisis of climate change is an awareness now emerging of the geological agency human beings gained through processes linked to their acquisition of freedom. [more]

Commemorative causality, the confusion between present resonance and past power, denies history its proper subject, writes Timothy Snyder. What is easiest to represent becomes what it is easiest to argue and, in lieu of serious explanations, only emotional reflexes remain. [more]

Disillusionment with democracy founded on mistrust of business and political elites has prompted a popular obsession with transparency. But the management of mistrust cannot remedy voters' loss of power and may spell the end for democratic reform. [more]

Social segregation, cultural appropriation: the six-hundred-year history of the European Roma, as recorded in literature and art, represents the underside of the European subject's self-invention as agent of civilizing progress in the world, writes Klaus-Michael Bogdal. [more]

Our language is our literary destiny, writes Olga Tokarczuk. And "minority" languages provide a special kind of sanctuary too, inaccessible to the rest of the world. But, there again, language is at its most powerful when it reaches beyond itself and starts to create an alternative world. [more]

The recent publication of the private diary of Witold Gombrowicz provides unparalleled insight into the life of one of Poland's great twentieth-century novelists and dramatists. But this is not literature. Instead: here he is, completely naked. [more]

He pointed a way for American fiction out of the doldrums of postmodernism, writes George Blecher. For a culture troubled by the corrosive commercial media and closed-end systems underpinned by technology, David Foster Wallace's influence remains a force to be reckoned with. [more]

It is high time to lift the aesthetic state of emergency that has surrounded witness literature for so long, writes Steve Sem-Sandberg. It is not important who writes, nor even what their motives are. What counts is the "literary efficiency". [more]

Nationalism in Belgium might be different from nationalism in Ukraine, but if we want to understand the current European crisis and how to overcome it we need to take both into account. The debate series "Europe talks to Europe" is an attempt to turn European intellectual debate into a two-way street. [more]

Democratic deficit, enlargement fatigue and ever more rescue funds: is there still a future for a common Europe? Therese Kaufmann, Ivan Krastev, Claus Offe, Sonja Puntscher-Riekmann, Martin M. Simecka diagnose causes for the current malaise of the EU. [more]

Perceived loss of sovereignty and rising hostility towards migrants are behind the nationalist revival in many EU member states. Yet in the countries of the former USSR, nationalism is associated with democratization. Andriy Shevchenko and David Van Reybrouck discuss whether talking about contemporary nationalism in East and West in the same terms is possible at all. [more]

The surge in "anti-politics" throughout Europe coincides with media marketization and the rise of digital technologies. Ivaylo Ditchev and Judith Vidal-Hall analyse media change and the loss of trust in political institutions. What happens to democracy when political decision-making relies increasingly on the opinion poll? [more]

Multiculturalism, the default strategy in western Europe for managing cultural diversity, is increasingly under attack from both Right and Left. If multiculturalism has reached its limits, what are the alternatives that can help manage diversity, both in the East and in the West? Kenan Malik and Fero Sebej in debate. [more]

While an historical-materialist approach to both culture and society has strong critical potential in western Europe, many eastern European intellectuals regard it sceptically. Jiri Pehe and Benedict Seymour ask whether Marxism - or even leftist politics - means one thing in the West and another in the East. [more]

The aggressive monetary policies of western financial institutions were a major factor for the crisis of eastern economies after the speculative bubble burst in 2008. Robert Misik and Daniel Daianu debate the ethical and political implications of western investment in eastern Europe and the globalized economy as a whole. [more]

In many European countries, a nationally framed approach to history clashes with those of neighbouring states. Danuta Glondys and Arne Ruth discuss the role of intellectuals in disputes over contested history and ask whether cross-border journalism can build an element of real universality into the European project. [more]

Martin M. Simecka and Laszlo Rajk, both sons of well-known persecuted communists, discuss the still unanswered questions surrounding the involvement of their fathers' generation in post-war communism, and the failings of today's debate about the past in the former communist countries. [more]

Eurozine emerged from an informal network dating back to 1983. Since then, European cultural magazines have met annually in European cities to exchange ideas and experiences. Around 100 journals from almost every European country are now regularly involved in these meetings.

Under the heading "Making a difference. Opinion, debate and activism in the public sphere", the 2013 Eurozine conference in Oslo focused on cultural and intellectual debate and the production of the public sphere. [more]

Harbour cities as places of movement, of immigration and emigration, inclusion and exclusion, develop distinct modes of being that communicate how they see themselves as part of the structure that is "Europe". The 2012 Eurozine conference explored how European societies deal variously with the cultural legacy of the "harbour city".[ more ]

The Eurozine conference on "Changing Media - Media in Change" from 13-16 May 2011 brought fresh insights to debates on the future of journalism, intellectual property and free speech, and made one thing very clear: independent cultural journals are where reflexion and criticality combine with changing media strategies.[ more ]